


It Is What It Is

by ProwlingThunder



Series: Kaiju Blue/Titan Red [1]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013), Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: 2000 Years Later, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Gen, Modern Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2018-01-22 00:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1569440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProwlingThunder/pseuds/ProwlingThunder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It only takes a single phone call to set things into motion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Is What It Is

**Author's Note:**

> So basically: Titans are gone, Eren and four others have Super Long lifespans that have left them live (young) into modern day, and Kaiju Attack. Pacific Rim-wise this is occurring shortly after the second Kaiju attack-- maybe a couple of days. 
> 
> I have More Ideas for this. Hm.

The reporter on the television announces the climbing death toll with a sort of finality and fake horror. Several nations working in conjunction with one another were required to bring it down at last, but not as many as before. There are people still trapped in rubble, she says. They find more dead than they do living.

 

Kaiju blood is acid. Bright, blue, and impossible by every standard humanity has. But it is what it is.

 

He watches the only television in this tiny, half-frozen town and nurses a frothy beer. The bartender is watching, too, but the bartender is no concern of his. He is thinking about a world, two thousand years ago, and like speaking of the devil, his phone rings, vibrating it's way across the table.

 

He answers it without thinking. There are only five people who have his number, and he is one of them.

 

“Are you watching the TV?” It's a quiet voice, low, soft, with a hint of an edge of danger. He remembers barbed rings and ice, nearly as pale as the blizzard outside. Two thousand years has eased the rough knot of betrayal. Two thousand years of being the only ones, and if he had never been able to be angry at them before, he would never have been able to, now.

 

Two thousand years was a desperately long time.

 

“Yeah.” There is no reason to lie. He has never been good at it.

 

For a long moment there is silence on the other end, and he waits. There is precious little background noise, but he imagines he can hear her walking out of her kitchen to the safety and quiet of her office. He wonders what time it is, and then wonders what time it is here. All five of them live at opposite ends of the world.

 

“Listen, I've spoken with Ymir.”  
  
“It's not going to get better, is it?” It's a hard question to ask sober. He finishes off his mug of beer and raises it, briefly, to grab the bartender's attention. He would like to be able to pretend it does something to his physiology, but it doesn't.

 

He wonders what Hanji would think of it. Of all of it. Them, humanity, the _kaiju_.

 

One heartbeat. Two. Then he can almost imagine his conversationalist shake her head. “No. It's going to get much worse. She thinks it's like before, but she can't be sure. It's a valid idea.”

 

Before. Two thousand years ago.

 

Two thousand years was a desperately long time to wait between World Destroying Attacks. The bartender comes around with another beer, tops off his mug. He never questions why his most profitable patron never gets drunk, or what he talks about in the safety of the empty bar. He doesn't question anything. It would be bad for business, and if there is one thing that has not changed in two thousand years, it's business.

 

“When is the next one?”  
  
“There is not enough information yet.”

 

He finds himself opening his mouth and speaking before he is aware he is thinking it. The words strike like salt in an open wound and he flinches. “Armin would know.”  
  
She doesn't respond. He stays quiet for a while longer.

 

“...you don't have to come. But I've contacted the others; we're going to meet where the city used to be.”

 

The city. The only one that had ever mattered.

 

He closes his eyes and downs the whole mug in one go, trying not to let his heart ache. It doesn't help. But after so long, it's a distant throb. He can handle it. It's not like the geography hasn't changed. That the buildings haven't vanished. Hell, the Walls themselves are gone.

 

Long gone. Sixteen hundred or more years gone. He's lost track.

 

It's been a long time since he's seen any of them. They're the only ones left. There isn't anyone else.

 

“...does your gear still work?” It's a standard string of words, always spoken. But it buys him time to think. He knows why they'd be gathering now, so close to this last attack. They want to help. They want to protect humanity, not just a piece of it. And this time, they might actually can.

 

He already knows his answer. He can feel it, itching under his skin. He moved out here to cool his blood off, but he has always known his answer. To something this big, he only has one answer.

 

His compatriot might be smiling. It's impossible to hear it in her voice, though, so he lets it go, but he thinks she is. He does hear a breathless laugh, quiet.

 

“Yeah, Jaeger. My gear still works.”

 

“I'll be there.”

 

He will be. He's given his word, and it's too late to take it back.

 

Eren Jaeger downs one more beer and then stands up, fishing out his wallet and shoving his cellphone in a deep pocket. When he's paid for his drinks he is bundled up in his parka, and smiles at a daydream of Hanji seeing kaiju. He thinks that she'd like it, that she'd be happy.

 

He's pretty sure every government in the world would want her to study them, too. She would never run out of funding.


End file.
